Kruger Safari Part 1: Pre-Trip and Big 5 or no Big 5 by independent Belgian travellers

Published on 18 July 2024, Last updated on 15 August 2024.

By Guest Blogger in Big 5 Safari.

This series of Kruger safari posts brings you wildlife photos and trip reports written by independent Belgian travellers. These Kruger National Park safari reports contain the actual emails (translated from Dutch) and photographs Peter and Wendy sent to their friends and family in Europe after their recent adventures in South Africa.

Peter and Wendy are intrepid travellers from Belgium. This adventurous couple has visited South Africa five times including three Kruger National Park safaris together. They are savvy and budget-conscious globe trotters who’ve been all over the world, from Japan and Argentina to New Zealand and India. In Africa, Peter and Wendy have travelled to Namibia, Madagascar, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, and sunny South Africa.

Welcome to our 2024 Kruger Safari series! Come and experience Kruger National Park in South Africa through the eyes of seasoned Belgian travellers...

Kruger Safari Report 1: before the trip

Hello all,

Good news: in the next 2 weeks the weather will finally be good in Belgium because... we are leaving the country and when we do the weather is always good in our home country!

We are ready to go back to South Africa.

This time we have an 11-day safari planned in 3 different national parks in the northeastern region of our beloved South Africa: Kruger National Park, included.

Tonight we take the night flight from Zaventem to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) where we have to wait 3 hours before flying on to Johannesburg tomorrow morning. If everything goes according to plan, we will pick up our rental car at Johannesburg airport tomorrow afternoon and immediately drive east for an overnight stay in the town with the beautiful name "Weltevreden" (near the Schoemanskloof).

The next day we enter Kruger National Park via the Malelane gate in the south and will tour around for a few days in search of wild animals, large and small.

Slowly but surely we will move north through Kruger National Park. On our Kruger safari, we will stay in various rest camps, including Satara, Mopani, and Punda Maria rest camp, and then leave the park further north via the Pafuri gate.

We are excited. For us, a safari trip is a "relaxation holiday" just as for other people "sun, sea and beach" means a relaxing holiday.

Still, I can't promise to report as we go because a safari (for us) means starting to drive before dawn in the hope of spotting "cats" before they crawl away under the shade of a tree to spend the rest of the day asleep. In the afternoon a short lunch or swimming break. And then drive around until the last minute and enter the rest camp just before the gates close.

Greetings

Wendy and Peter

(8 May 2024)

Kruger Safari Report 2: Big 5 or no Big 5?

Hello all

Our South Africa safari trip is over and it was worth it again!

This time we, again, experienced that no two safari trips are the same. Nothing is predictable and you never know in advance which animals you will see, which always makes it a unique and exciting experience.

Everyone hopes to see the Big 5 (elephant, buffalo, lion, rhino and leopard) on safari in South Africa. For some people this is possible in 1 safari day, for others, it takes a little longer or does not happen at all.

Did Peter and I succeed on our South Africa safari? Well, ... let me sketch it out:

Elephants and buffalos are fairly guaranteed during a South African safari drive, especially in Kruger National Park. We have seen them beautifully several times, from far away and up close.

Lions are frequently present in Kruger National Park but sightings are never guaranteed. With some patience and good spotting we managed to see lions 3 times, 2 of which were close up and 1 from far away.

But then: finding rhinos is not as easy. And seeing a leopard, the icing on the cake for most safari goers, is even less straightforward.

When we entered Kruger National Park in the heat of the day on the second day of our trip, we happened to choose an unpaved loop where several "rhino toilets" were located along the road. They often do their business in the same place and that makes for quite a pile of poop, which clearly indicates that you are in rhino territory. That doesn't mean you will see one, but there is hope!

One of the first animals we saw on our Kruger safari was an elephant - already a nice start. After a while, top game spotter (Peter) saw an unusual grey mass between the bushes in the shade of a tree. Yes! 2 resting rhinos!! We mainly saw their wide behinds and the occasional turning of their ears, but the horns appeared missing. They were probably cut off as a precaution against poaching. We were, of course, delighted but hoped to get even better sightings of rhinos, preferably in full regalia and with horns.

Unfortunately, we were not able to do that in the 6 days we toured Kruger National Park. We had to wait until the park we visited on the last 2 days of our trip before luck struck.

In the meantime, we had already seen quite a few elephants, buffalos, lions and rhinos. But it looked like we would return home without being able to tick off the Big 5. Our perseverance was however rewarded: in the last hour, of our last game drive, we suddenly saw something large walking along the road a little way in front of us.

And yes... there was a leopard!!

We just managed to take a look through our binoculars before it disappeared from view and then we slowly followed it in the car. He almost immediately ran into the bushes, but when we stopped where we had last seen him, we spotted him walking, looking back and then leisurely disappearing into the bushes.

I think we only saw the leopard clearly for 15 seconds, but we were still happy with that lucky sighting. We didn’t get any photos but it is a sight etched in our memories. The safari jeep that arrived 1 minute later had missed him. It goes that fast sometimes!

So yes, we saw the Big 5 on our safari in South Africa at the last minute, among so many other animals that I will talk about in the next emails.

Greetings

Wendy and Peter

More Kruger safari reports from Wendy and Peter:

Guest Blogger Author

We love to feature guest bloggers with firsthand safari stories to share from their travels or experiences living in Africa. Some of our guest writers are travel bloggers, others safari Aficionados or wildlife experts - all share a love of Africa!